What have they gathered so far? About five theories on where she could be and what she could be doing.

And as the force grapples with half-clues and uncooperative informers, the May 16-deadline that the city sessions court put on them to arrest Haseena has just slipped past.

The Crime Branch, its own officers admit, is up against an informer network silenced by the fear of Dawood’s vendetta. Police sources say the Karachi-based don is weaving a web of deception by planting stories of Haseena’s whereabouts.

Her Nagpada apartment lies empty. Police teams have scoured her relatives’ south Mumbai homes and ancestral house in Ratnagiri. The police claim Dawood and her other siblings, Anees and Mustaquim, are remote-controlling efforts to shield her.

Joint Commissioner of Police Meeran Borwankar ran an old line: “There is no fresh development. We are looking for her. I don’t want to share more information.”

Haseena, said a police officer, was precious to Dawood. “His brother Iqbal Kaskar, involved in the Sara Sahara case, is behind bars. She is the only Kaskar who is free and could be approached by those needing the gang’s help, and to pass on messages to his local boys,” he said.